New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh topped the ranking of states in the central government’s ease of doing business survey, while a newly introduced feedback system dragged down the performance of several states, including West Bengal, as their claims were not matched by feedback from users.
Though the reform evidence score of Andhra Pradesh (99.73%) was lower than Telangana and Jharkhand, which scored a perfect 100%, its user feedback score at 86.5% was the highest among all states, helping it top the Business Reform Action Plan ranking conducted by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).
The ranking, which was introduced in 2015 with 285 action points, expanded to 372 measures in 2017 spread across 12 areas, including registering property, paying taxes and labour regulation enablers. While in the first two years, the ranking was based only on evidence provided by state governments, DIPP introduced in 2017 user feedback for 78 action points from architects, lawyers and contractors among others to weigh whether reform measures are reaching the users or not.
From the next year, the ranking will be based entirely on user feedback, said DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek.
In 2017, nine states achieved a combined score of more than 95% while six states achieved a combined score between 90-95%.
